DRC: Rebels formally announce new movement, leadership e: bulk

DRC: Rebels formally announce new movement, leadership

NAIROBI, 17 August 1998 (IRIN) - Leaders of the ongoing
rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo have
formally announced details of their movement and its
principal members. President Laurent-Desire Kabila,
who briefly returned to Kinshasa from Lubumbashi at
the weekend, is reported to have gone to Zimbabwe today.

The Rwanda News Agency, reporting the rebels' announcement,
said the movement would be known as the Rassemblement
congolais pour la democratie (RCD), whose chairman
was Ernest Wamba Dia Wamba (an academic and member
of the Bakongo people from the Matadi area), deputy
chairman Moise Nyarugabo (a Munyamulenge, formerly
in the DRC government) and executive secretary Jacques
Deplace. The RDC also has an executive council headed
by a coordinator and comprised of four civilians and
four military commanders. As yet the latter have not
been named, but the coordinator is Professor Lunda
Bururu (a lawyer from Katanga) and the civilian members
are Kalala Shambuye (ex-ADFL member from Kasai), Tambwe
Alexis Mwamba (a former minister under Mobutu), Dr
Bizima Karaha (a Munyamulenge and Kabila's foreign
minister until recently) and Mbusa Nyamwisi (from North
Kivu and an ex Mayi-Mayi leader).

Bisimwa Ganiwa, deputy secretary-general of the opposition
party Forces du Futur, which supports the rebellion,
told IRIN the new set-up was "temporary"
until Kinshasa was taken. Once the rebels were installed
in the capital, the roles would be redistributed and
a new government announced. "By the end of the
week, everything will be sorted out," he said.
He claimed rebel forces were 150 km from Kinshasa.
Members of the Congolese armed forces there were persuading
their families to leave, he added. According to Ganiwa,
Forces du Futur president Arthur Z'ahidi Ngoma, formerly
named as coordinator of the rebellion, had been offered
the post of vice-president in the new coalition.

A Congolese analyst told IRIN the rebellion had changed
its strategy. Instead of having a single leader, it
had decided on a joint leadership to encompass as many
sections of Congolese society as possible, he said.
He pointed out the leading members represented well-known
politicians and representatives of DRC society from
various provinces. The aim of the rebellion, he added,
was first to take Kinshasa and then negotiate some
sort of power-sharing, including the position of veteran
opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi who has not made
any public pronouncement since the conflict broke out
on 2 August.

RNA said a rebel commander, Sylvain Mbuki, told a rally
in Bukavu on Saturday the rebellion had made important
gains on all fronts. Matadi, Walikale and Baraka were
under rebel control, he said. Another commander, Jean-Pierre
Ondekane, said today Lubutu, southeast of Kisangani,
had also fallen to the rebels, as had Fizi "which
means we are approaching Katanga". He predicted
Kinshasa would fall "in the next week or two".

President Kabila, who arrived back in Kinshasa from
Lubumbashi yesterday, declared the battle against the
rebels was entering its final phase, news reports said.
"The next 24 hours are decisive," he said,
after briefly visiting Luanda for talks with the Angolan
and Namibian presidents. Today, he left for Zimbabwe
for talks with Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia on the
crisis, Reuters reported. On Friday, Kabila named his
son Major Joseph Kabila to head the country's armed
forces, after sacking Major Celestin Kifwa.

Foreign nationals continued to evacuate Kinshasa and
diplomatic sources told IRIN the Burundian community,
which had been holed up in the Burundi ambassador's
residence since the start of the conflict, managed
to return to Bujumbura by plane over the weekend. People
who left Kinshasa spoke of panic in the city, saying
young men recruited into the army by Kabila's administration
were "spreading fear" and the army itself
appeared "disjointed". Sources in the capital
told IRIN "nervous soldiers" were patrolling
Kinshasa's streets and some government members were
preparing to flee.

The city was again reported without electricity today,
after suffering a similar fate on Thursday in the wake
of the rebels' capture of the western Inga power plant.

Nairobi, 17 August 1998, 14:45 gmt

[ENDS]

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